Mischief and Magic
by LilCan
Summary: Tony and Loki are living together in Stark Tower. Every day Tony tries to surprise and scare his new housemate, and one day he does it! But what strange repercussions will result if Tony interrupts Loki and his magic? Well... we shall see! (Rated T because everyone seems to, so to be safe. General disclaimers apply.)
1. Chapter 1

Tony peaked around the corner; the hallway was empty. He tiptoed, in a rather comical fashion, to the first door. After a short pause he quickly opened it and burst through. The room was empty. Damn. He checked the other 4 rooms of the hall, the next hallway and the kitchen, he'd pretty much given up on scarring Loki.

Ever since the God of Mischief had moved into his tower Tony had tried and failed many times to surprise his the new resident. Today was yet another failure, however, and Loki was nowhere to be found. Not that it affected Tony too much. He sauntered into the kitchen, sulking, and got himself a coffee. He wondered where Loki might be.

As if reading his mind Jarvis piped up, "Sir, Loki is in the dining room on the ground floor, he appears to be practicing magic."

Tony let our a groan, couldn't his AI have told him before he spent an hour searching his whole tower?

"Thanks for finally having some input Jarv'" he replied sarcastically, putting his now-empty mug down and heading toward the lift. He pressed the button for the ground floor a little too hard, his restlessness a result of caffeine and excitement. He all but ran through the hall as soon as the doors opened enough for him to fit through, heading straight for the dining room.

He opened the door and looked through, his toothy grin making his demeanour even more juvenile than his behaviour already was. The door squeaked a little as he opened it wider. He paused, a grimace spread across his face as he waited for the God to move. Loki was sitting on the floor cross-legged with his back to the door. A faint blue glow emitted from an unknown source and tendrils of thick blue smoke swirled around on the floor before dissolving into the air.

When nothing happened Tony opened it fully in one swift motion and yelled as loud as he could, 'BLAAARR,' limbs flailed wildly. Even Tony himself didn't know what the loud sound was meant to be. He came to an abrupt stop when there was still no response from the God. Damn. Didn't scare him this time either.

He sighed and walked over to see what Loki was doing. He stood behind him but couldn't see more than blue smoke and a pulsing ball of energy that Loki was mustering between his hands. From where he was, he couldn't see that Loki had his eyes closed and was in deep concentration, almost in a trance-like state.

"Hey why're you putting smoke all over my carpet? It better not stain," Tony complained, putting his hand on Loki's shoulder to support his weight as he leaned forward to see better.

"AHH!" Loki yelped and jumped away from the touch on his shoulder, finally noticing Tony was in the room. The energy ball flickered like a light bulb might, before disappearing altogether. The smoke turned from blue into a darker grey and began swirling around where Loki sat facing his intruder.

"Uhhh...is that meant to happen?" Tony questioned, sounding more curious than nervous.

Little zaps of electricity began shooting haphazardly around in the smoke making it appear more like a heap of billowing, miniature storm clouds.

"Yes of course, it was fully my intention to have you barge in here and disrupt me while I'm performing a specialised spell that is now malfunctioning," Loki said sarcastically, "it better not backfire," he mumbled to himself more than to Tony. He stood up, "I told you not to come in here, I left a note and everything."

"Not my fault you lost control of your fairy magic." Tony shot back in an attempt to defend himself.

"Actually, it is." Loki said in his no-nonsense tone. Tony shifted his weight, uncomfortable with upsetting the God.

Deciding it was probably best to get out of the small storm, seeing as how it didn't get smaller and started swirling faster, he stood up and began to drag Tony out of the room with him. Tony protested at first but was no match for a pissed off God. They got halfway across the room before the storm started rumbling.

"Is that _thunder_?" Tony asked, his face incredulous as he looked over Loki's shoulder with wide eyes.

"Crap." Loki said, before a searing white light filled the room. Loki threw himself in front of Tony to protect him from the shock wave that erupted, shattering windows and knocking them both over, a surge of power and magic swept through the room.

They both woke up rather dazed. Loki lifted himself up on his arms and looked down at Tony, whom he was still half lying on top of. Tony just smiled and started laughing, _not_ the reaction Loki expected.

"What? Do you know how badly that could've ended? We're lucky it's only smashed windows and broken furniture!" Loki's words were harsh but Tony didn't seem to acknowledge the tone.

"Umm…" he said, still laughing, "I don't think that's the only thing…"

"What? What else? Why are you laughing?" Loki said, all malice forgotten and replaced with confusion. He rolled off and sat up, turning his head and looking around the room to find what Tony found so funny. Tony laughed harder, clutching his stomach, and rolled on his side as tears formed in his eyes. "_What is it?"_

Tony stood up, laughing less as he wiped his face on his sleeve, recovering his composure. "You- you have ears!" Tony lost all sense of self-control he'd regained since standing up and began laughing again.

Loki was getting sick of this, he wanted a straight answer and he wanted it soon. For a man who claims to be so adult Tony was rather childish sometimes. Of course he had ears, he's always had ears, what was he on about now? He sighed, forcing himself to be patient while Tony collected himself. "Yes, I have ears, what of it?"

"No, you have _ears_ Loki," Tony clarified, as though putting more emphasis on the word 'ears' was meant to help.

"Uhh I still do not know what you're going on about,"

"Ooh you always go into 'professional mode' when you're angry," Tony said, as though the whole ear-problem had been sorted.

"Tony! What's wrong with my ears?!" Loki urged him to shed light on the situation. He reached up to feel the sides of his head, making sure that he still had ears and that they were alright, but he couldn't find them. His eyes grew wide. Tony said he _did_ have ears, right?

Tony crouched down and gently grabbed Loki's hands, moving them up to the top of his head and placing each one on something soft. Tony stepped back with a huge smile on his face, as though he was proud to help, which only served to make Loki frown more. It took a while for it to click in Loki's mind, possibly because he didn't really want to believe it, but as he felt around he found he did indeed have some new ears. Giant, floppy, soft ears.

"Are you a cat?" Tony said, once again his curious mind was at work, studying Loki for any animalistic behaviour, "or a mouse? Or some kind of cow?"

Loki sighed. _Cow?_ "You don't get out much do you? Cats have pointed ears and mice have round, thin ears that stick up." Deciding not to even grace the cow suggestion with acknowledgment, unsure whether Tony really thought he was now part-cow or if it was a roundabout jab at his helmet again.

Tony helped him up. "Sorry I don't take notice of the ears of wildlife."

"It's considered common knowledge Tony, and they're not 'wildlife' either," Loki ground out, quickly growing annoyed at Tony again for not being concerned enough about him or educated enough about the world in general. Tony rolled his eyes. He brushed himself off and looked at Tony, only instead of seeing his face; he was met with the bright glow of his Arc Reactor glowing through the black fabric of his shirt. He looked up, "am I shorter than you now?!"

They both stood staring at each other with wide eyes, Tony's jaw slightly agape, Loki grinding his teeth, one could almost see the steam coming out of his ears. As always Tony broke the silence first.

"Awww you're adorable when you're grumpy!" the man practically squealed.

"Shut it Stark, I am not in a gaming mood," Loki snapped before storming off to find a mirror to further inspect his ears. He hated being short, he hated having weird animal ears, he hated being mad at Tony, this all sucked. Tony chuckled and trailed behind at a safe distance. Was the guy ever fazed by _anything_? Loki wondered momentarily.

After dodging a toothbrush and a bottle of shampoo thrown by a remarkably peeved God, who followed up his efforts with slamming the door so hard Tony was sure he'd have to replace the hinges, he waited outside the bathroom impatiently tapping his foot. When Loki finally emerged again it took all of Tony's self control to not burst out laughing again. He looked at Loki expectantly.

He'd simmered down a fair bit while in the confined space, and after examining his ears; Loki had come to a conclusion…

"I'm a puppy, Tony."

**A/N: Please give me your feedback, suggestions, criticism, corrections, anything, I would love to hear what you have to say! If anyone likes this story, I'll post more chapters for you! Just review or something and I'll be happy to.**


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm a puppy, Tony."

"You're a puppy? I always pictured you more as a cat, or a snake maybe," Tony said, still very un-fazed by the whole thing.

"I'm glad one of us is amused by the situation." Loki shot back. He brushed past Tony roughly, if only to emphasize his annoyance further, feeling sarcasm wasn't enough.

"Wait, Loki…" Tony called after him, jogging to catch up, "I didn't mean it! It was a joke, I never pictured you as part-anything!"

Loki made a point of ignoring the whining man following him as he stomped off. As he neared the end of the hall, (_why are there so many halls in Tony's tower?!_) he realized he had no destination in mind; he'd just stomped off purely for the dramatic exit. "Why do you take nothing seriously Tony? I could remain in this state forever, and you do not seem to care in the slightest. In case you didn't notice, I don't like this!" He decided the lift was a good way to leave.

He poked a random floor number and wished the doors would close faster. He needed the time alone to think of how to reverse the ears mishap, _if_ he could reverse it.

Tony jogged once again to make it through the doors before they closed on him. Loki sighed. "I'm sorry Loki, look I'm caring now, what do you want me to do?" he asked, not very familiar with the whole apologizing thing.

An unmistakably puppy-like growl escaped Loki's lips, he even bared his teeth, "stop laughing at me? Might be a good start," he snapped, aggravated further by the prospect of being stuck in a confined space with the man who was just witness to his puppy behaviour. He looked at the button he'd pressed, glowing red, hoping the ride would at least be a short one. Damn. Top floor. How did he even manage to blindly pick the highest floor?

Tony cringed as he remembered his initial reaction to seeing Loki's new ears. "Sorry," he mumbled, now feeling a wave of guilt at his ignorance of the God's feelings. An atmosphere of tense and awkward silence filled the lift as it continued to rise.

The doors opened with a soft 'ding' that was way too cheery for Loki's liking. He walked off towards the kitchen, for the sake of seeking relief from the claustrophobic lift. He lent against the kitchen bench, folding his arms over his chest and looking sullen.

Tony approached slowly, still feeling bad. He stood in the kitchen unsure of himself. _What do I say? How to I fix this?_ Tony thought. He cleared his throat in an attempt to gauge a reaction from the God. Loki stared at the floor as though the tiles were more worthy of his attention. "They really don't look that bad Loki, their black fur matches your hair, and I'm sure with your magic and my technology we can fix this," he said, a crappy yet effective attempt to lighten the situation.

Loki looked up and studied the engineer's face, he wasn't happy with the comment on how they matched his hair, but he had to appreciate the attempt. He kind of enjoyed how desperate Tony was for forgiveness and how inexperienced he was on asking for it.

He pushed himself away from the bench and went to open the fridge. He stopped when he saw his note from earlier. It was a generic square sticky-note, secured on by an Iron Man magnet because the sticky never held. He plucked it out from the magnet, holding it pointedly in front of Tony. "I told you I left a note, did you not read it?" Although some of his intimidation was lost because of the new height difference, he still managed to pull off the don't-mess-with-me-Tony look.

Tony took the note and read over the small, almost calligraphic writing,

_Tony, don't distract me today, I'm doing something important and I'll throw stuff at you if you come in, Loki xx_

Well he did throw stuff at him. At least he keeps his promises. Or threats.

Tony marvelled at how so much writing was on the note without it looking crammed, before remembering that Loki was waiting for a reply. "I haven't come in here today, how was I meant to see it? Not my fault," he argued.

Loki gave him a level look, "Tony," he began, the man averted his eyes, "I know you came in here today, you do every day, your coffee mug is still where you leave it every morning, there's wet coffee rings on the counter, the milk is still out so I know you opened the fridge, and your voice goes slightly higher and you shift your weight when you're lying."

He opened the fridge ignoring Tony's grumbling, something to do with 'Sherlock' and 'deductions' and 'you think you're so good.'

_Yep, still got it,_ Loki thought, smiling to himself. "Try not to lie to the God of Lies," he said matter-of-factly, smirking and grabbing out an apple.

He closed the fridge and smiled at Tony, taking a bite of his apple and heading to the small round table opposite the kitchen. The table served as a breakfast table on the rare days Tony made it to breakfast from his workshop and Loki woke early enough to consider his first meal breakfast instead of lunch.

Tony followed and took a seat opposite, "You still mad?" he asked, although he knew the answer already.

"No Tony, you're just a pain sometimes, and you know I leave you notes on the fridge," Loki replied, feeling his irritation disperse.

"I know but I was distracted," Tony said, glad he was forgiven.

"Oh?" Loki lent back in his chair and rested one foot on the table, "and what was so important that you couldn't spare a thought to read it?"

"Well…" Tony hesitated, "I was trying to scare you and I thought I couldn't find you but then Jarvis told me where you were and I just drank all my coffee really fast and ran out to find you," he blurted out quickly.

Loki waited for the tense man to calm down, "so you missed my note because you were excited to do exactly what the note would have told you not to do?"

"Yeah…"

The God chuckled. "You are such a child sometimes!" he said and threw his apple core at him.

"Hey! Stop throwing stuff at me!" Tony said, the apple core hitting his arm as his evasive flinch was delayed.

"No," Loki said simply, "I'm helping you improve your agility."

"Yeah, well thanks for the thought but I think I'm good."

"Good? Your reflexes are worse than Thor's!"

"Hey I kinda dodged the apple," Tony started growing defensive.

"Just," the smug God clarified.

"And the toothbrush and the shampoo!" he added as an afterthought, still insisting he wasn't that bad.

"Only because I allowed it, if I wanted to hit you I would not miss, but I do not wish to hurt you."

"Yeah sure," Tony got up and headed to the door, ruffling Loki's hair on his way past, "I'm going to the shop, you want anything? Chew toy? New kennel?" He was 99% sure it was safe to make canine jokes now.

Loki scowled, flattening his hair, "I thought you wanted me to _stop_ throwing things at you," he said, but he sounded amused, although he now didn't want time alone; he wanted Tony to stay.

Tony laughed. "You don't have fleas do you?" he questioned opening the door leading to the foyer.

He made it out just in time to miss the projectile coffee mug that shattered against the door.

**A/N: Thanks for the feedback! I've been unsure what kind of relationship these two should have so I've been avoiding defining it, but if you want them to be 'more than friends' just give the word! Anything you want me to change, add, exclude, alter, just put it in a review. Also I'm a little (ok, very) pedantic about grammar, so please tell me if it's lapsing. **


	3. Chapter 3

"Lokiiiii! I'm hooome!" Tony called out, stepping through the door with multiple bags in his arms, he probably could've just made two trips with the amount he had; but Tony was renowned for being stubborn. He ungraciously set them down on the kitchen floor and went about unpacking various items into the fridge and cupboards. He was remarkably out of practice when it came to common housekeeping.

Loki strode in and put away the brush and pan that he'd been using to clean up the ceramic shards after throwing the mug earlier. He was curious as to why Tony had even bothered going shopping and what he'd actually bought while out. He hoped he got more apples.

"Oh thank goodness, I thought my Man of Iron had been kidnapped!" Loki said sarcastically, pretending to swoon.

"Nope, just got some stuff," he replied dismissively.

Loki was suspicious now, Tony never bothered himself with 'just getting stuff,' he had Jarvis for that, and his trips to the shops were hardly ever spontaneous or unexplained beforehand.

"What 'stuff' did you get exactly?" Loki questioned lightly, he tried to act as though he didn't suspect anything, not that Tony would have noticed anyway considering the intense concentration he apparently required to correctly put away groceries. Sitting on the kitchen bench with his legs crossed beneath him, he watched Tony. It took some extra effort to lift himself up because of his reduced size. _Never has it been this tall, _he thought.

Tony gave him a sideways glance. He used to complain about this habit of Loki's, stating arguments about the availability of chairs in the tower and the way it makes him look like a child at story-time, but had long since given up trying to convince him to stop doing it.

"Well, I got a new mug, since you acquainted my other one with the door," Tony said still avoiding direct answers, "and some food we needed, and some movies." He tossed some DVDs on the bench, which were promptly ignored by the God.

"And?" Loki asked. He wasn't about to give up.

"And what?"

"And what else did you get? You can't lie to me remember, I can tell."

"Nothing, just food and stuff."

There was a pause as Tony shifted under Loki's scrutiny. "Stuff?" he asked.

Tony rolled his eyes. "OK fine! I got one other thing," he exclaimed, smiling excitedly and practically bouncing on the balls of his feet, hands clasping something behind his back, "it was going to be a surprise but I can't wait anymore."

Loki couldn't help but be curious, and Tony's jittery happiness appeared to be contagious. "What else? You must tell me," he pleaded.

Tony's smiled grew bigger, "well you're little…so…" he began, teasingly slow.

"Tonyyyy what's behind you? What is it?"

Tony withdrew a large black object that Loki recognised but couldn't identify. He held it out proudly.

"Um what is it?" He also wanted to ask how Tony had managed to hide it the whole time, but swiftly forgot that when Tony replied.

"It's a top hat, duh," Tony said, plonking the slightly over-sized hat on Loki's head. It slid down over his eyes. "See? Makes you look taller," he stated.

Loki removed the hat, studying it, before putting it on again and adjusting it so he could see. It slipped down a bit but for the most part it stayed in place. It would probably have been _too _over-sized if Loki's newly acquired puppy ears didn't hold it in place. "Thank you, Tony!" he said, hopping off the bench to see whether the top of his hat was tall enough for his liking; it was, coming just above Tony's head.

"Makes you look adorable too," Tony said.

"I'm not adorable," he said, but crossing his arms and pouting crossly only reinforced Tony's statement.

"Aww!"

"_I'm not adorable!"_

"Yes. Yes you are."

Loki frowned, before losing his composure and being overcome with giggles; not helping his case much, but not really caring. They laughed and laughed until they were clutching their stomachs from all the hysteria. All hard feelings from recent events had now been very much forgotten.

They soon found themselves with an abundance of free time, and since doing something productive for the rest of the day didn't appeal to either of them at this point, Tony made a suggestion.

"Come on Reindeer Games, movie time?" Tony asked, "hmm, I'm gonna have to think of something new, references to that snazzy helmet of yours might have to be replaced with something puppy-related."

Loki chuckled. "Movies? Yes. New nickname? No."

"Aww you're no fun," Tony complained.

Loki grabbed the DVDs Tony had tossed before and lead the way to the lift. Still not fully knowing his way around Tony's enormous tower he waited for the man to choose a floor while he looked over the rented entertainment.

"These seem…bloody," Loki stated, unsure what to make of the amount of monsters, murder and gore they seemed to contain.

"Yeah they're horror and thriller, they had a special on at the shop."

As if that helped Loki's confidence. So far his digital entertainment experiences hadn't been that bad, but then he hadn't watched anything of this nature.

"They're just scary movies, not even _that_ scary, it'll be fun." Tony said sensing Loki's uneasiness. The elevator made a cheery 'ding' sound and the doors slid open, yet again the sound seemed out of place to Loki.

They sat on the couch with their feet on the coffee table. Neither of them were ever one for etiquette after all. It was growing dark outside but the blinds had been lowered long before to block out all light, obscuring all sense of what time of day or night it was.

* * *

Well, Tony may have called a 'scary movie' but Loki described with words that'd be censored in children's movies…

He was terrified.

To his credit he started off well, but from the first jump-scare (which totally wasn't predictable, no matter what Tony says) Loki had been curled into a little ball and clutching Tony's arm for safety. His big, strong Iron Man would save him from the spooky demon kids and cannibalistic psychopaths.

Tony did his best to comfort him without laughing at how pitiful the small God was acting. It was obvious that they didn't have scary movies where he came from, but to the experienced veteran of scary movies these were actually considered low budget, B Grade crap with poor acting and a dodgy script. Even the fake blood wasn't convincing.

Loki flinched as another very much expected jump-scare frightened him, Tony held him closer, stifling a laugh.

"This isn't funny Tony! How can you watch this?!"

"It's not even that bad! And it's only pretend, ghosts and demons aren't real," Tony tried reassuring.

"But chainsaw wielding murderers and serial killers are!" Loki whispered, as though he'd be heard by beings of the sort if he said it too loud.

"Meh you're safe here, don't worry."

Yep, hardly anything fazed Tony.

Loki shuffled closer, resting his head on Tony's shoulder.

"OK I get it! You don't like scary movies that are made by Earthlings?"

"We refer to you Midgardians actually," Loki corrected, "but yes, I don't like scary movies very much."

"You're safe," Tony said, hugging Loki tighter.

* * *

**A/N: I know the chapters are getting shorter, I'm sorry, blame writers block and lack of inspiration. Thanks to everyone who favorited/followed! Please feel free to send me some feedback or requests, I'll be sure to include something if you ask. **


	4. Chapter 4

Neither of them is sure how it happened but they had fallen asleep on the couch, Loki lying on Tony's chest, Tony with one arm slung across Loki's waist, the light from the glowing arc reactor was hidden between the two bodies.

And that was how they found themselves when they were woken up the next morning. Well, afternoon actually.

Loki heard the door click open, and, still a little paranoid from his recent horror movie experience, drew in a panicked breath and woke up in a flash, propping himself up with his hands on Tony's chest. This woke Tony up, who also panicked because of the weight of another person holding him down, and immediately grabbed Loki, who pulled away, causing them both to roll off the couch and land on the floor between the foot of the couch and the coffee table.

"Tony?!" Loki looked up at the man straddling him on the floor.

"Loki?! What…?" Tony was just as confused as Loki.

A low chuckle was heard from the doorway, reminding Loki of the initial reason he'd woken up. Both heads swivelled around, "Thor?!" they both said at the same time.

"I've had clearer mornings after house parties," Tony grumbled before standing and helping Loki to his feet.

"'Morning Stark? It is 2 in the afternoon," Thor said, greatly amused by the situation, "and I must ask, do you two often sleep this way?"

It took a few seconds for the drowsy god and mortal to comprehend what Thor was saying, after which Loki promptly ignored his brother completely and Tony responded with some witty quip that Loki also ignored. He wasn't a morning person. Or god. Or whatever. He needed coffee.

Thor and Tony stayed in the room talking while Loki was quick to take the elevator down to the ground floor. He entered the kitchen and headed to the coffee machine. He made a rich-extra-caffeinated-mocha-something, he didn't really know or care, he just pressed buttons and impatiently waited for the drink to be ready. As long as it woke him up enough to be able to string words together into to legible sentences and properly kick-start his magic into functioning, he didn't mind what it was.

He gulped down a mouthful of the strong drink. The elevator 'dinged.' Loki flicked his wrist and disabled the internal mechanism that produced the awfully cheerful sound. Ahh...magic was amazing. There was muffled talking as Tony and Thor approached, before they stopped in front of Loki.

"Aww Loki you're so cute!" Thor exclaimed.

"What?" Loki said, looking up from his coffee.

"You're so little!" Thor cooed, "and do you have puppy ears?"

"Uhh Thor, don't go there," Tony warned, smiling though.

"Huh?" Loki was confused; the caffeine hadn't taken effect yet.

"Aww you've got puppy ears! And you're shorter," he clarified. There was a huge grin plastered on his face.

"No I'm not Thor, don't be stupid," Loki replied. By now he knew he was in fact shorter and puppy-like, but there's nothing wrong with playing around with his dear brother now is there?

Tony looked at him for a few seconds, before quickly catching on. He knew that mischievous glint in Loki's eyes. "Thor, are you ok? He's taller than _you._"

They both hid their smirks, as Tony brushed past to make a coffee, Thor stood there a little stunned.

Loki headed to the table and Thor followed mentally measuring himself against his brother. Loki made an effort to appear to be climbing onto his chair, even magically switching mugs so he held the biggest one Tony owned, so he looked smaller.

"Do you both not see this?" Thor asked incredulously.

Loki rolled his eyes. Tony sat down and held the back of his hand to Thor's forehead.

"Are you okay brother?" Loki asked, expertly faking concern.

"You do seem to have a bit of a temperature there, Thor," Tony added, not quite as good at acting as Loki, but Thor didn't notice.

"Yes I am fine. Look at him!" he said pointing to Loki.

"Oh! Well Thor nobody looks perfect in the mornings, no need to be rude!" Loki said, feigning offence now.

Tony sipped his coffee, hiding his smile behind his mug. Loki held down a laugh and sipped his own.

Thor's eye flicked between the two innocent-looking faces.

"Hey buddy, I think you should lie down," Tony suggested.

"Yes, you must rest Thor, you appear to be delirious from your travels," Loki said.

"I…but…" Thor seemed about to argue, "I suppose you are right," he conceded, "I'm sorry Stark I did not come here with the intentions of ruining your afternoon," he then took his leave, taking one last look at Loki, and retreated to the lift without another word.

* * *

Tony and Loki sniggered quietly until the doors of the lift closed, at which point they burst out laughing uncontrollably until they had tears rolling downs their cheeks.

"Should we tell him?" Tony asked.

"Hmm…" Loki said thoughtfully, "nah, fuck it, make him suffer."

Loki; always the one for mischief.

They laughed some more until a thought hit Tony.

"Hey why did we sleep so long? We didn't stay up _that_ _late_ did we?"

Loki shrugged, "I guess the malfunctioned magic drained our energy."

"You guess? So you don't know?" Tony said, then nervously added "wait you don't know all the side effects?"

"Not really, but don't worry most of it went into me remember," Loki said pointing to his ears, "and anything that happened to you would have shown up a lot earlier anyway."

Yes, coffee made him a cheerier person.

Thor returned, interrupting the others' conversation about how often Loki threw things around the tower. He looked at the two strangely, before sitting down heavily on a chair opposite them.

"Tony, Loki, I know you're playing a trick on me," he said.

Tony began to talk, but Loki cut him off, "Thor, we know not of any tricks."

Thor looked sternly at his brother, his eyes moving up to his ears a few times before he looked over to Tony. "Stark, please do not lie to me my friend, is this an illusion?"

"No, it's not an illusion," Tony said sincerely.

Thor groaned, "but Loki is shorter I swear it! And has _ears!_"

"I've always had ears Thor," Loki said, having a strange sense of déjà vu settle over him, didn't Tony say the same thing at first?

Tony sighed, "Loki… I think we should tell him."

Loki sighed, annoyed his prank was over, "fine, tell him then."

"Loki screwed up his magic, and turned himself into a midget-puppy-god," Tony stated.

"Tony! It did _not_ happen like that!" Loki said, annoyed at how it made him sound like he was incapable of using his own magic.

"It did happen like that, you screwed it up," Tony said.

"Wait? What happened?!" Thor raising his voice over their squabbling.

"I was conjuring a very difficult spell, and I told Tony to stay out of it, but nooo he came barging in and it malfunctioned and I was turned into this," he gestured to himself, "and Tony was turned into an ass."

"Hey I was not!" Tony yelled at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you were always an ass!" Loki yelled back.

"Silence!" Thor boomed. "You two fight like an old married couple!"

"Do not," Loki grumbled.

"Only one of us is old," Tony said to Loki.

Loki glared at him, "and only one of us _looks_ old," Loki retorted.

"I assure you, I've retained my good looks!"

"You need to have them in the first place before you retain them!"

"Are you jealous Loki? That I'm just better than you in every way?"

"I most certainly am not-"

"SILENCE!" Thor shouted, standing up and interrupting them again.

Loki huffed. Tony tapped his fingers on the table. They must both be really tired to start arguing without good reason.

They glared at each other, until they were distracted by Thor's low laugh.

"You're so adorable Loki!" Thor said.

Adorable? _Adorable?!_

"Uh ohh…" Tony said, grinning at what was to come.

Loki growled and stood, grabbing his empty mug. Thor got up and ran towards the door but not fast enough. Loki threw the mug at Thor hitting his cape and breaking against the armour on his arm.

"Loki!" Thor yelled and turned to scold his younger brother, but Loki raised Tony's mug above his head ready to throw it. Thor took the hint and escaped into the lift.

"You were right," Tony said thoughtfully.

"About what?" Loki asked, sitting down.

"Thor _does_ have crap reflexes."

* * *

**A/N: Thank you for the feedback! I was going to stop this story, but then a lovely person made a comment about Thor's reaction, (you know who you are, I hope this is good enough for you) and other lovely people also sent some feedback, so, that is the power of reviews at work everyone. If anyone has some suggestions, criticism, appraisals, something you want added, please feel free to tell me, I'll take them all into consideration. **


	5. Chapter 5

Loki was once again cleaning up a broken mug. "This seems to be a recurring thing," Loki commented. After all his time staying at Tony's tower, and all of Tony's disapproval towards this 'always throwing things' reaction, Loki was actually surprised Tony didn't care that much.

Tony chuckled, "yeah, if you'd only stop throwing things!" he said with sarcastic hope.

"Would you rather I swung a stupid hammer around?" he said, lingering bitterness towards Thor could still be heard in his voice.

"Nope, but throwing stuff is still pretty damaging to my property," the man grumbled, although in reality it actually didn't faze him that much.

"Perhaps if I shot fire from my hands you'd appreciate the minimal damage that is actually done by 'throwing stuff'" Loki said.

Tony's head swivelled around at that.

"You…you can do that?!" his mouth all but fell open.

"Yeah, but I'm better at ice," Loki shrugged. He was cautious of doing magic that required even the slightest amount of power, particularly after the incident with Tony.

"Can you show me?! Please, please, please!"

He really didn't want to, "don't you remember what happened last time? We're not doing that again."

"Look," Tony said, backing away, "I'll stand over here and you be magical over there."

Loki suddenly wanted to impress Tony, there was something about the man's enthusiasm that just motivated Loki. He smirked and snapped his fingers creating a small elegant ball of orange and red flame with a flickering point at the top. It swirled around and in on itself, like rolling magma sitting in his palm.

Tony _was_ impressed. He stood there, stunned, like he was witnessing the most mesmerizing thing in the world. Loki moved his hand around, marvelling at how Tony's eyes followed it.

"Tony close your mouth, gawking isn't a good look on you," Loki said, chuckling, clenching his fist he crushed the magic flame, causing it to dissipate into smoke.

Tony blinked a few times, "oh," the man said, apparently remembering what he was doing, "_that_ was awesome!" He giggled like a child on a sugar high.

"You, sweetie, are a bit of a pyromaniac," Loki stated, discarding the final pieces of ceramic after cleaning up.

"Do it again!" Tony pleaded, running over to Loki.

"Isn't once enough for you? It does take effort you know," Loki tried reasoning.

"Please?" Tony said, "please, please, please, please, please, please, please please please please please please please please please please pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease pleeeeeeeeeeaaase?!"

"Ugh fine!" Loki made another ball, and placed it on the bench. So much for staying away from it.

"Oooooohh…" Tony's eyes widened. He paused, "wait is that burning my bench-top? You know that's expensive right?"

"Everything in your tower is expensive Tony," Loki said, rolling his eyes.

"All the more reason to _not_ burn stuff," Tony said, pitifully blowing on the fire as if it would help get rid of it. He really did not want scorch marks on his belongings.

"Oh relax, it wont burn your precious bench."

"So magic fire doesn't burn things?" Tony asked, reaching out.

"It's _fire,_ it still burns things even if it's magic."

He pulled his hand away, "then could you be so kind as to remove your magic fire _from my bench top!_"

Loki rolled his eyes, "oh do calm down, it wont burn."

"Are you serious? It's on fire!"

"Are _you_ serious? It's granite Tony, you know; the rock material that is used for benches because it doesn't burn," Loki said calmly, mischievously enjoying how Tony panicked.

"Oh…" Tony said, realizing, "I remember choosing granite for that reason, and 'cause the gold looked pretty like my suits."

Loki snickered at Tony's rather house-wifey ramble on kitchens and matching colours. Tony was admiring the little ball of flame, "just remember; don't touch it," Loki said.

"I'm not stupid Loki, I know not to touch fire," Tony said, defensively.

"I'm just saying; it still burns." Loki left to put away the cleaning things.

* * *

Loki was on his way through the hall when he heard a cry of pain.

"Oww!" Tony squeaked, putting his finger in his mouth.

Loki ran in, "What happened? Are you ok?" he asked frantically, he looked at Tony, "you didn't…"

"It wasn't my fault, the fire bit me!" he mumbled with his finger still in his mouth. Tony was sitting on the ground looking rather upset, part of his sleeve was singed and he'd taken on the pouty-sooky look Loki was so famous for.

Loki sighed, "I said _don't touch it_ stupid."

He waved his hand across the flame, extinguishing it. Tony momentarily forgot about his pain as his face dropped at the sight of his toy being taken away.

Sometimes, Tony was such a child…

"Let me see it," the God asked, holding his own smaller hand out.

Tony stood, wiped slobber off his finger onto his shirt, and placed his hand into to the God's.

Loki cringed, much to his utter disgust there was still grossness on it.

Immediately small ice crystals, almost like snowflakes, started forming where their hands touched. Tony's breath hitched and he pulled away.

Loki stared blankly at him before snapping out of his own little bit of shock, "so I get puppy ears and reduced height and can make fire from my hands, but _ice_ freaks you out?" Loki said, ears going flat in an unmistakable way that said 'Tony, really?'

Tony's cheeks reddened, but he cautiously held his hand out again. The little ice crystals started appearing on his skin, forming more on the burned areas of his fingers and palm. Loki focussed on Tony's injuries.

Tony shifted awkwardly.

The ice smoothed out to coat only the burned areas. Clear and unmelting; it didn't crack or fall off like he'd expected, and as Tony took his hand back and studied it he noticed the ice wasn't cold or clumpy either, but was a thin layer over his skin, with a swirling rune on one.

His skin tingled underneath it. Tony's eyes were wide with wonder as he watched as the skin repaired itself. The ice now fell off in little crystals and clinked on the floor, where they shattered and disappeared on the black tiles; the contrast was beautiful.

He stood up and looked to Loki who, of course, had a smug look on his face. "I told you I was better with ice," he said, shrugging.

"Yes, you did," he said vaguely. It was all Tony could manage as he poked and prodded his hand.

* * *

Ruining the moment of magic and wonder, Thor stuck his head around the corner and spoke. "Is it safe to enter?"

"No," Loki said flatly.

"You're still here?" Tony asked, he'd completely forgotten Thor was only hiding and hadn't left yet.

"Yes Stark, I'm still here," Thor said, entering the room anyway. He looked at Tony playing with his hand and Loki flicking ice crystals across the kitchen, "is Loki doing his little party tricks again?" he said, knowing it would annoy his brother. Sibling rivalry was almost instinctive for those two.

Loki twitched at the comment but Tony started talking before Loki could insult the fool in response.

"Party tricks? Have you seen what he can do? He healed my hand! He's amazing!" the man rambled. The glaring contest between the Gods stopped as all eyes turned to Tony.

Now it was Loki's turn to go red, "it was just ice magic, I can do that naturally," he said modestly.

"Fuck that, it was awesome, Thor don't be a party-pooper," Tony responded, wanting Loki to feel proud of himself.

Loki's attention switched to Thor, daggers shooting out of his eyes.

Thor knew he'd never win an argument with Tony or Loki, so he let the subject drop. Loki was still blushing from Tony's compliments.

"Anyway," Thor began, "I came here earlier to deliver a message." He sounded bored, like it was a chore to convey things.

Loki groaned and rolled his eyes, "there was no need Thor, really," he spat, "I'm surprised you came at all, and so soon!"

"What reason is there not to come?" Thor said, he sounded a little hurt.

Tony did not know what was going on and looked between the two trying to decipher the situation.

"I don't know, you tell me," he shot back, "I assumed you'd all forget it again."

"We do not forget it Loki! Unlike you we all have responsibilities to attend to," Thor tried to justify, sounding angrier.

"Oh? Yours is never forgotten," Loki said bitterly.

"Forget what? What message?" Tony asked in bewilderment.

"Nothing," Loki said, waving his hand in front of Thor, making him vanish.

Now Tony was more confused than ever, "what…what just happened?"

"Nothing. Let it go," Loki said, stomping off in a huff.

* * *

**A/N: I'm super sorry for the late u****pdate, and t****h****ank you all so much for the feedback! I took it all into account, and I hope this is what you wanted (I've edited it 24 times...I've had writers block and was abducted by aliens and all sorts.) I****f you have any criticisms****, appraisals, suggestions, problems, guesses as to what Thor always forgets (lots of you will probably guess correctly) or anything you want to say, just tell me. **


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